The IDF declared sections of the Jerusalem-Hebron highway a "closed military zone" Sunday morning, barring the passage of four busloads of foreign activists who planned to stage a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Hebron.

The group, primarily British, French, and Italian protesters, spoke with police and soldiers at the Gush Etzion roadblock in attempts to receive permission to continue to Hebron. The IDF refused to rescind the military restriction and took measures to prevent a repeat of violence in a confrontation with the demonstrators near Ramallah on Saturday.

At Saturday's demonstration, some one hundred

"We can say, 'peace is possible'" - PA Jerusalem representative Sari Nusseibeh

protesters set ablaze an abandoned IDF post to protest Israel's "harassment and intimidation" of Palestinians. Members of the International Movement for Solidarity with the Palestinian People also attempted to escort students to nearby Bir Zeit University.

Just south of Nablus, a group of 100 Palestinians, Italians and French marched towards five Israeli tanks stationed near a check post. "If you want real peace, the occupation must end. You are strangers here," one protester called through a loudspeaker at the Israeli troops. Witnesses said Israeli soldiers fired warning shots in the air.

The foreign demonstrators have been taking a major role in "non-violent" protests for the past ten days and plan to leave Israel soon, the Jerusalem Post reported.

MK Michael Kleiner (Herut) demanded that the Minister of the Interior expel the European tourists involved in the confrontations with Israeli soldiers. Kleiner said the tourists were recruited with European Union money in order to break the law and be arrested in full view on the international media.

Israelis, Palestinians form new peace coalition
Some 700 Israelis and Palestinians packed the New Imperial Hotel just inside Jerusalem's Old City on Friday with the intent of creating a new coalition seeking an end to violence and a return to negotiations.

Participants in the rally, organized by Sari Nusseibeh, the PA's senior official in Jerusalem, and Knesset opposition leader Yossi Sarid (Meretz), signed a declaration of principles calling for "a cessation of violence," "the return to negotiation" and "the adoption of a two-state solution." A joint Israeli-Palestinian peace center will serve as a venue for meetings, youth coexistence activities and peace demonstrations, organizers said.

Nusseibeh expressed surprise at some of the more militant Palestinians who showed up at the rally, the Washington Post reported. Two members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine were in attendance. "We talked to them, but I am shocked they actually came," Nusseibeh said. "This shows it's not just me talking."

"Many Israelis, many more than we think, and many Palestinians, many more than we think, are ready to talk," said former Justice Minister Yossi Beilin (Labor). "We were once so close to peace that we could almost touch it. Let's prove to all the skeptics that we can still do it."

"We think there is always a possibility to create a new reality,'' Nusseibeh said. "We can say, 'peace is possible.'"

Outside the hotel, police kept two groups of demonstrators separated. Israeli peace supporters and Arabs faced off against an equal number of right-wing protesters. Media sources reported that the two sides were especially vociferous when Nusseibeh and Sarid stood side by side on a hotel balcony and released white pigeons, a substitute for doves.

Protesters call for end of occupation
Earlier on Friday, thousands of demonstrators crowded Jerusalem's Paris Square for a vigil organized by the Coalition of Women for a Just Peace. The rally began with a March of Mourning for all victims, Palestinian and Israeli. The demonstrators, most of them dressed in black, followed a huge banner stating, "The Occupation is Killing Us All." The procession continued down Agron Street, occasionally blocking traffic, until it reached an open plaza outside Jaffa Gate.

The demonstration was attended by Knesset Members Mohammed Barakeh, Naomi Chazan, Zahava Gal-On, Tamar Gozansky, Anat Maor, Issam Makhoul and Mossi Raz, as well as by delegations from Belgium, Canada, England, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the United States. Additional solidarity rallies were held Friday in 118 international locations.

Former Meretz Party leader Shulamit Aloni noted the lack of press coverage of the event. "Even though Israel's 'patriotic' media seek to ignore you, there is no doubt that your voice will be heard and that a great many others will join your cause. You will break through the silence because yours is a vision of freedom, justice and peace," she said.

In her speech, Aloni compared the activists' struggle to end the occupation with the struggles led by Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King. She promised the demonstrators that although their task was arduous, it would inevitably be crowned with success.

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